Piercarlo Sarzi-Puttini

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..To identify the clinical factors predicting failure or a good clinical response in the cohort of RA patients entered in the Lombardy Rheumatology Network (LORHEN) registry after 3 years of treatment with anti-TNF agents...

..The aim of this study was to assess thyroid function as well as the prevalence and clinical value of anti-thyroid antibodies in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA)...

..3% and in 12.9% of adalimumab-treated RA patients. Only limited data on the induction of aPL antibodies during TNF-alpha blocking treatment are available...

..To evaluate the potential role of CC chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5)Δ32 polymorphism in the susceptibility to and clinical expression of Behçet's disease (BD) in a cohort of Italian patients...

..The study was designed to evaluate their prescription modalities to determine whether they matched the recently proposed treatment guidelines for OA (ACR 2000; EULAR 2000; APS 2002)...

..Physical exercise and multimodal cognitive behavioural therapy are the most widely accepted and beneficial forms of non-pharmacological therapy...

..Furthermore, plasma ADMA levels could be used as a simple means of screening SRD patients at higher CV risk who need more aggressive treatment aimed at slowing or reversing the progression of atherosclerosis...

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..This review will discuss the recent literature concerning the most common dysfunctional disorders: fibromyalgia syndrome, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, and irritable bowel syndrome...

..A misdiagnosis harms the patients and the community. Rheumatologists should be able to recognise and distinguish primary and secondary FM, and need new guidelines and instruments to avoid making mistakes...

..Antinuclear and anti-dsDNA autoantibodies, but not anti-phospholipid autoantibodies, can be induced by adalimumab but to a lower extent than in studies with other anti-TNF blocking agents...

..Long-term therapy with anti-TNF agents sensitizes the pituitary gland and improves adrenal androgen secretion, thus stimulating an alternative form of anti-inflammatory action...

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..Aim of our study was to assess the prevalence and concentration of a panel of organ-specific autoantibodies in patients with RA and to evaluate their relationship with clinical manifestations and treatment efficacy...

..Studies predicting treatment response indicate that it is useful if not essential to tailor the choice of treatment components to the needs of individual patients...

..However, the greater increase in serum cortisol in comparison with serum 17OHP or ASD was related to clinical improvement, which indicates that the improvement was more related to the higher cortisol levels...

..As these are all associated with an unfavourable prognosis, it is essential to detect subclinical cardiac involvement in asymptomatic SAD patients, and begin adequate management and treatment early...

..A number of other more rare disorders also may be responsive to TNF blockade. We here review the current and prospective roles of infliximab in the treatment of autoimmune diseases and other conditions...

..The effects on the CV system depend on the drug itself, the dose and the period of exposure, and so CV risk should be evaluated before starting treatment with any drug...

..To investigate the prevalence of antipolymer antibody (APA) in patients with fibromyalgia (FM) and to examine its association with FM severity symptoms...

..As a result, acupuncture could be very useful to relieve pain in a multidisciplinary setting...

..A better understanding of the etiopathogenetic mechanism of SLE is required in order to clarify the multiple interactions between environmental exposures and genetic factors...

..This review describes the efficacy and adverse events associated with anti-cytokine treatments for autoimmune rheumatic diseases...

..However, many RA patients can be successfully treated with a second TNF antagonist, especially those discontinuing the first because of secondary failure or adverse events...

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..However, this is closely related to current RA activity and therefore suggests that it is not directly related to the drug. This article considers the published data in terms of clinical practice and changes in the progression of RA...

..The treatment of the fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is not standardized and often ineffective, and the course of disease progression is unpredictable...

..The disease course and patient's requirements often change over time, thus requiring a periodic review and readjustment of therapy rather than the rigid continuation of a single treatment...

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..As the first published registry of anti-TNFalpha-treated patients in Italy, Lombardy Rheumatology Network (LORHEN) is already making its contribution in this direction...

..This has led some authors to conclude that it is necessary to add methotrexate to infliximab in order to reduce the risk of the appearance of anti-idiotype autoantibodies...

..To evaluate the risk of serious infections (SIs) in RA patients receiving anti-TNF therapy on the basis of the data included in the GISEA register...

..Reviewing the biology of transmembrane TNF-alpha and its interaction with anti-TNF agents will contribute to understanding the bases of differential clinical efficacy of these promising treatment modalities...

..The two models (neurochemical and biopsychosocial) also affect our ability to find therapeutic answers...

..A number of clinical trials have shown that tumor necrosis factor antagonists are generally safe and efficacious in the treatment of PsA, and can inhibit the progression of radiographic damage...

..The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies (anti-CCP) in patients with primary Sjögren syndrome (pSS) and its correlation with clinical and laboratory data...

..The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of long-term treatment with cyclosporin A (CsA) in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA)...

..This review discusses the general aspects of the altered HPA and ANS, sympathetic overactivity, and alterations in cardiovascular autonomic responses to gravitational stimuli...

..CFR is early reduced in RA patients without clinical evidence of heart disease as a result of impaired microcirculation. CFR seems a useful technique able to follow-up and to assess effects of new drugs on RA patients...

..Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor is a proven treatment in patients with AIN of all types and is now preferred to other possible therapies...

..We here review the current and prospective roles of infliximab in the treatment of autoimmune diseases and other conditions that do not currently have FDA or EMEA approval...

..Finally, although these drugs improve the quality of life of RA patients, they considerably increase direct medical costs...

..Purpose of this review is to summarize new clinical, pathogenetic and therapeutic insights of this disease...

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..This case not only reminds us of the diagnostic challenges of bacterial endocarditis, but also underlines the need for a critical application of antiphospholipid syndrome diagnostic criteria...

..To investigate potential associations between the PlA1/A2 polymorphism of the platelet glycoprotein receptor IIIA (GpIIIa) gene and venous thrombosis and other clinical manifestations in Italian patients with Behçet's disease (BD)...

..Serum matrix Gla protein may be a marker of osteometabolic syndromes that cause hyperostosis and plays a role in Milwaukee shoulder syndrome...

..We evaluated the presence of CAP in patients with fibromyalgia (FM) compared to healthy controls...

..As an English and a German version of the RDQ exist, but not an Italian one, we aimed at translating the RDQ into Italian and evaluating its reliability for the use of Italian-speaking GERD patients...

..Since tumor necrosis factor (TNF) alters production of these hormones, we investigated changes of these hormones during anti-TNF antibody (anti-TNF) therapy with adalimumab in longstanding RA...

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..Strategies that show a passive attitude and joint pain seem to impair these patients' HRQOL...

..In this review, the increased risk of developing infections in these patients is also underlined and published data are reported...

..We studied survival rate, prognostic factors, and causes of death in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), particularly focusing on the influence of disease severity...

..In this review an overview of the different biochemical methods of antigen preparation and the specific methodological applications is given, also describing potential critical aspects and benefits of the different protocols...

..This occurrence could lead to a lower-than-expected increase of IL-6, accounting for the low humoral immune response and the low disease activity observed in the third trimester of pregnancy in such patients...

..We undertook this study to investigate the predictive value of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis hormones for clinical improvement during anti-TNF therapy...